Spring Arena

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

The Peoples Democratic party in a twist of faith declares it was heading to court to quash the alleged illegal declaration of the Saturday Osun governorship election to which it was declared inconclusive by the independent electoral Commission INEC even though rallying in a twist of faith at the same time, lobbying the candidate of Social Democratic Party, Senator Omisore In the propose rerun scheduled to take place on Thursday, a few days from now.

The party said the polls had already been concluded and results announced in all polling and the collation centres, thus bringing the exercise to its lawful conclusion, which had removed INEC powers to declare the election inconclusive.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, who gave the party’s position in a statement in Abuja, said the electoral law was clear that once an election result was declared, INEC was bound to declare a winner.

He said INEC, in allegedly trying to play the card of the All Progressives Congress, contravened the law by refusing to announce a winner when the declared results had thrown up a winner.

He said, “Section 69 of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) states inter-alia, ‘In an election to the office of the President or governor, whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate and subject to the provisions of sections 133, 134 and 179 of the constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate Returning Officer.’

“Concurrently, Section 179 (2), (a) (b) of the constitution directly prescribes that ‘a candidate for an election to the office of governor of a state shall be deemed to have been duly elected where, there being two or more candidates – (a) he has the highest number of votes cast at the election; and (b) he has not less than one-quarter of all the votes cast in each of at least two-thirds of all the local government areas in the state.’

“The PDP demands the immediate arrest and prosecution of the Osun State Governorship Election Returning Officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, for succumbing to the pressure of the APC and declaring a decided election inconclusive.

“We demand that INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, summon the courage to do the needful by declaring our candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as the winner.”

“The PDP is heading to the court to quash the illegal declaration.”

Ologbodiyan boasted that if the Osun governorship election was conducted over and over again, the PDP would still win, adding that the people of the state had chosen the PDP and its candidate, Adeleke.

Meanwhile, with the twist of faith that the People's Democratic Party is being confronted with, the leadership of the party, headed by the Senate president, Bukola Saraki had sort for the support of the third runner-up of the yet to be concluded election in Osun and a candidates of Social Democratic Party, Senator Omisore in other to gather support from him. The People Democratic Party and All progressive Congress are the two contending parties with having the PDP leading as the electoral body declares it to be inconclusive citing electoral guidelines and other legal frameworks

The election was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday because, according to the commission, the difference between the votes scored by the two leading parties, the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, was lower than the number of votes cancelled.

After the collation of all the results from the 30 council areas of the state, Adeleke of the PDP had 254,698 while the candidate of APC, Gboyega Oyetola, polled 254,345.

INEC said the rerun would take place in seven polling units located in Orolu, Osogbo, Ife North and Ife South council areas on Thursday.

Omisore became a bride to the two parties because most of the polling units fall within his stronghold. Omisore’s father, Oba David Omisore, is the ruler of the Garage Olode, a town in Ife -South, where elections in two units were cancelled.

Senator Iyiola Omisore in response said he will only pledge his support for the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Ademola Adeleke, in the Thursday’s rerun of the poll if the party satisfies his conditions.

Speaking during the visit of a PDP presidential aspirant, Senator Bukola Saraki, to his home in Ile-Ife on Monday, Omisore, who also dumped the PDP after a disagreement over the party’s primary, said as a stakeholder in the state, he was always after a people-centered government.

Omisore said, “I have given my programmes to both the APC and the PDP. My programme is like this; payment of salaries and pensions. Good governance is what is important to me.

“Anyone between the two that will do that will get my support. I am passionate about Osun State and my interest is the welfare of the people of this state. I have told those sent to me. At the appropriate time, we will tell you where we are going.”

The Senate President told journalists after his meeting with Omisore that he (Omisore) had agreed in principle to support the PDP in the rerun of the election on Thursday.

He said, “We had a fruitful discussion with Senator Omisore. He used to be with us. And we believe he is helping us now. I am optimistic of a good outing for the PDP. After meeting with him, I am more optimistic now that with his support, the PDP will win. We are confident of a good outing. I am more confident now.

“I was hard on INEC because it declared the Osun poll inconclusive after doing a good job. The issue of vote-buying was on the front burner but that was reduced to the minimum as against what we witnessed during the Ekiti poll. At the end of the day, the poll was again declared inconclusive. That sort of took away all the commendations that should have gone the way of INEC.”